Monday, May 02, 2005
CNN on the Spam Attack? A Former CNN'er Doesn't Think So
Source Wired News The blogosphere is buzzing with rumors about a strange viral marketing campaign concerning CNN, that may be promoting the cable channel or squelching criticism of it -- or perhaps both at the same time.
Earlier this month, blogger Nick Lewis noticed a strange post about CNN on his blog. The comment was critical of some new shows on CNN, but also included detail about the shows, their show times and the anchors hosting them. The same terms were repeated over and over, making it appear like spam. Something was not right.
Lewis initially suspected CNN of being behind the mysterious posts. Lewis thought CNN might be trying to jam blogs critical of the network by spamming them. The network, or a surrogate, was posting comments on blogs using a technique called "keyword stuffing," Lewis claimed.
A CNN spokeswoman denied the network is behind the posts. "CNN has not created such a campaign," she said.
But critics say this is pure conspiracy theory: There's no proof CNN is behind the posts, directly or indirectly.
"What, besides pure speculation, links this to CNN or Time Warner?" said Brooks Jackson, a veteran journalist and director of the University of Pennsylvania's press-monitoring project, FactCheck.org. "It could be anybody."
"They are either embracing (blogs) or worrying about it," said Ken Deutsch, executive vice president of Issue Dynamics.
But Jackson, a former CNN reporter, said accusations of blog spamming are contrary to what he knows of CNN and Time Warner management.
"They are quite used to fielding calls, letters and e-mails from people who don't like something they saw on CNN," said Jackson.
Jackson questioned why CNN would pay any attention to what a handful of mid-size bloggers had to say.
# posted by ATN @ 8:15 AM 
